Welcome in as Vertical Center. Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you, and we get to start with some pretty big breaking news. The Texas Democratic fugitives. They've conceded. They are apparently going to return to Austin as the latest report center. This is certainly going to be tears to many liberals that were cheering them on in sanctuary states. Now they're going to actually have to go back to work.
Well, this is news that broke this evening. The Texas Democrats who had fled the state the House Democrats defeat a quorum in order to stop the redistricting in the state of Texas. They've surrendered, They've admitted defeat. They've announced that they are coming back. We're going to break that down. We're going to tell you why they're coming back. We're going to tell you about what legal authorities the governor and the Speaker of the House had and used to
force them to come back. And we're also going to talk more broadly about the issue of jerry mandering because we have seen in the last two weeks, we have seen democrats, we have seen blue state governors, we have seen the media clutching their pearls saying this is horrible, this is a theft of democracy, and I got to say in the Annals of Hypocrisy, the democrats reaction to Texas's redistricting may be at the top of the list
of utter complete nonsense and hypocrisy. We're gonna give you the facts of what exactly Democrat states do when they draw congressional redistricts and compare it to Republican states and spoiler alerts, the Democrat states are much much, much more egregious in gerrymandering their states than Republican states ever are.
We're gonna give you the facts so that when you're standing around the water cooler, you're gonna know the response to someone who decides to do some pearl clutching on their own.
Yeah, no doubt. It's really fun when you see the data.
They may have wished they didn't go down This road in Texas is going to have a big impact around the country.
Let me tell you real quick about it.
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a rallying cry center around the country. Democrats are like, they're jerrymandering down there in Texas. You even have Gavin Newsom getting in on this. He sends a letter to the Presidence like, well, if you guys don't stop what they're doing there, then we may have to jerrymandering in California and get those seats back that you steal from Democrats. News Alert they've been doing this for decades in California. That kind of I fired on in pretty quickly. But now the Democrats are coming home.
Well they are, and that's the breaking news this evening. So I'm reading from one news story here in Texas. ABC thirteen is confirmed with multiple sources that House Democrats will return to Texas. Eyewitness News has not confirmed the date, but we do know that the Democrats believe they've accomplished their mission by killing the first special session and raising
national awareness about the mid decade redistricting effort. It is unclear which day they will be in Austin at the Capitol, but they stress that they will push for Hill Country flooding relief to be the priority. After our initial reporting online and on television, a spokesperson for the Texas Democratic Caucus set the following statement to ABC News quote, members are still assessing their strategies going forward and are in
private meeting to make decisions about future plans. Currently, if and when the Texas House Democrats breaking quorum decide to go home is squarely dependent upon the actions of the governor, Speaker and Texas Republicans in charge make with regard to prioritizing flood victims over redistricting.
That hurts Texans.
So that's their talking point, but the ultimate bottom line is they've announced they're coming back.
Now, why are they coming back? They're coming back.
Number one because the governor and the Speaker of the House is issued in order to arrest them, to bring them back forcibly and arrest them.
Number two, the.
Speaker of the House has the authority to find them five hundred dollars a day for every day they are absent and break quorum.
They change the rules in the hent in the House.
And by the way, that five hundred dollars cannot be paid from campaign funds. You can't raise money for it. It's five hundred dollars out of your personal pocket if you refuse to show up.
It's amazing how that changes everything for the Democrats. So hold on a second. We can't can't talk about her money. What money, What do you mean money?
Yeah?
Yeah, yeah.
And number three, and the Governor is proceeding in front of the Texas Supreme Court to seek to declare those offices vacant and remove them from office. And so they were facing a legal barrage and they knuckled under it.
They were engaged in.
That, they were engaged in a lot of smoke and mirrors and show they were throwing a hissy fit. But at the end of the day, Ben mark myert words. The result, Texas will pass this redistricting bill, and the consequence of it is going to be five additional Republicans
elected to Congress from the state of Texas. That is going to happen, and the Democrats, they may decide to play out and to have their righteous anger while they rush off to their comrades to say, we think it is terrible when Republicans are elected, but they will lose because they don't have the leverage. And I'll tell you, Ben, that this is actually a topic that I've got some personal experience in.
You've dealt with this before, literally in your own life.
Well, So, in two thousand and two, Greg Abbott was elected the Attorney General of Texas. He'd been on the Texas Supreme Court, he was elected AG. When he was elected AG, he interviewed this this young kid lawyer to be Solicitor General. And Okay, I'm actually going to take a break. Have I ever told you the story of how I got the job of SG.
No?
Okay, So I'm in DC. I'm working in the George W. Bush administration. I'm the head of policy at the Federal Trade Commission and a buddy of mine calls and says, hey, Greg Abbott was just elected AG. And I said, well, yeah, I knew that I wasn't a complete idiot. And he said, well, he's looking for an SG. Are you willing to have your name considered? And I said, well, let me think about it. Let me talk with Heidi, and I'll call you back tomorrow and let you know. And I talked
with Heidi. I said, what do you think? She said, absolutely yes, put your name in. I think that's great. So I pulled together a resume, I sent it down, and a day or two later I got a call asking me to come down to all interview.
So I did. I went down and interviewed.
Now I didn't know Greg Abbott at all, and I frankly assumed I'd never get the job. That he would hire someone who'd known twenty years. That's kind of the way of the world. He'd hire a buddy of his, another lawyer.
He knew baseball in politics, right, you go with someone you're familiar with.
So I went down there. Now, I'm thirty one years old, I'm a kid. I do the interview. I don't know him at all, and a couple days later, I'm actually out with Heidi. We're in California at her parents' house and it's about six in the morning where but we're both asleep in bed and my cell phone rings. I answer it and it's Greg Abbott and he's calling to offer me the job of SG and I was I was floored. But I got to tell you, Heidi almost
fell out of bed. She was so shocked, and she told me she said, well, look, I told you to interview because I knew there was no chance you could get the job. I knew it was absolutely hopeless. And I actually almost didn't get the job. Abbott told me later that he almost didn't make me the offer because he didn't think I had the wine, because he didn't think I had the experience to be a very good oral advocate.
At the time, you didn't put debate champ on your resume. I'm a little disappointed in you. There.
Well it was there, But at the time I had only argued two cases in my life, so I was thirty one. Now I won both of them. The two cases i'd argue I'd won. One was a Court of Appeals case in private practice, and the other was in a federal district court in New York on behalf of the FTC. Now, I will say, in the case in New York on the other side was the head of litigation at Crevass, Swain and Moore, which is one of the top law firms in the country. And I took
him on and beat him in court. And so those two arguments, I leaned in hard and said, look, I've done two arguments. I'm two and oh. They were both hard cases. They mattered and somehow. You know, if you ever saw the movie Job, if you ever saw the movie Chicago with Richard Gear where they go and now a tap dance.
So I get the job. I head back to Texas. I'm in Austin.
Spring of two thousand and three, the Texas House, for the first time in decades becomes Republican, and so the Texas House begins to do mid decade redistricting. Now what is mid decade redistricting. Ordinarily, redistricting happens right after the turn of the decade. So if you get a new new decade, you get a new census, and with a new census, you do redistricting with the new numbers that
have come out from the census. That's how it ordinarily happens. Well, back in two thousand and one, Texas had done redistricting, but the Democrats controlled the House, and so Texas had the most egregious partisan jerymander in the country because even though Texas was voting overwhelmingly Republican on the statewide level, Texas was electing a majority of Democrats to the congressional delegation.
The Texas Democrats had drawn a map to elect the opposite congressional delegation from the way the state was voting, and it was the nastiest partisan gerrymander in the country by the Texas Democrats. That's what they'd done. So in two thousand and three, when Republicans took the House, they decided, Okay, we're going to do redistricting so that we can draw a map that alects a congressional delegation that reflects the
values of the voters of Texas. So they did so, and the Texas Democrats in two thousand and three did exactly what the Texas Democrats did in twenty twenty five, which is they fled. They said, run away, run away, And so the House Democrats they went north to Ardmore, Oklahoma state, a little holiday inn just over over the Red River, and that the Senate Democrats they went to New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, to a fancy, a very
fancy hotel. And I thought it was really funny that the senators, the Democrats senators were going to a shishi hotel, and that the House members were at a holiday inn in Oklahoma. But so one of the first things that happened is is that the Speaker of the House, Tom Cratick, a great guy, picks up the phone and he calls Greg Abbott, the brand new Attorney General, and he says, General, can I arrest the fleeing House Democrats? And Abbot said, I don't know. He said, let me let you let
me figure it out. So Abbot picks up the phone. He calls me, I'm brand new in my job as SG. He goes ted. The Speaker wants to know can he arrest the fleeing Democrats who are fleeing the state. I said, General, I don't know, let me research it. I'll give you an answer. So I sat down, I did the legal research.
It turns out the answer is unequivocally yes, and The reason is the Texas Constitution has a provision in it that is copied word for word from the United States Constitution, and the US Constitution has a provision that gives both Houses of Congress the power to forcibly compel the attendance of absent members so that members do not have the right to defy a quorum. And in fact, multiple times that has been used carrying House members or senators into
the chambers in lake irons in handcuffs. And so I came back and said, the answer is unequivocally yes, you can arrest them. Now became a little bit complicated when they crossed state lines because crossing state lines, particularly going into states with Democrat administrations, it is possible that if Texas DPS troopers showed up there, that those states could
try to prosecute the officers for kidnapping. That was a possibility if the governor or the local des decided to be belligerent, you could get into uncharted legal territory.
And so the safe.
Fanti is that why, by the way, Democrats have all picked these liberal cities like Illinois, where the governor says we're going to back you, We've got you come here, you'll be safe.
We won't let them arrest you.
Right.
It is more complicated to do it in a liberal jurisdiction if you have someone who is partisan and politically motivated. What is unambiguously clear is that when the Texas Democrats are back in Texas, you can arrest them and you can forcibly produce their bodies on the floor to get a quorum. So this will end, they will lose, and the Texas Legislature will pass this redistrict.
By the way, if you are arrested and taking to the four the way that you were described, I think a lot of people just want to know this around the country. You can be there like not wanting to be there. Right, they can drag your butt literally into the chamber and you're counted there as a human being that's a member of the legislature. And that's how you get to a quorum. It's not forcing you to vote, right, it's just that your present.
Correct And it can be literally with handcuffs and leg irons.
I mean it now.
It's not being arrested for a crime. You're not going to jail. It is the authority to physically force your presence in the room because the reason they're fleeing is is the requirement that there be a quorum. The legislature cannot do business if they're not sufficient members there for
a quorum. And that's why both the United States Constitution and the Texas Constitution give the authority to physically compel presence, because no individual member has a right to prevent the body from being able to legislate from being able to do it. Its fundamental constitutional responsibility.
So they're back now, and this has actually brought up, I think a bigger issue and I want to take the time. I actually think this may be one of the biggest backfires in political modern history, in my opinion on an issue of jerryman A lot of people I don't think understood just how much abuse of power with Democrats in charge in different states with jerrymandering, and how many Conservatives were so underrepresented in Congress. A great example
of that is California. There are several other states that have like zero representation of Conservatives of Republican members of Congress because the way they've drawn the district lines to make sure that it's almost all Democrats all the time. And a lot of people did not know how much abuse there was, how much jerry mannering was happening all over the country in Democratic states until the big Texas issue happened. I think this could be a backfire for Democrats.
Look, just about every big Democrat state has gerrymandered the hell out of their map and is frustrating the will of their voters in their states. So let me give you some specific examples. California, biggest Democrats state in the country. In twenty twenty four, or fifty eight percent of Californians voted Democrat. Thirty eight percent voted Republicans. So fifty eight percent Democrat. They have a total of fifty two congressional seats. Of those fifty two, forty three of them are Democrat,
nine are Republican. What does that mean. It means the Democrats win fifty eight percent of the vote in California and they get wait for it, eighty three percent of the congressional delegation.
That's what they Democrat there.
So the thirty eight percent of Californians that vote Republican get a total of seventeen percent of the congressional delegation. They're basically shut out. How about New York New York. Fifty six percent of New Yorkers vote Democrat, forty three percent vote Republican. There are twenty six congressional seats in New York. Nineteen of them are Democrats, seven are Republican. What does that mean. It means Democrats get fifty six
percent of the vote statewide in New York. Can they get wait for it, seventy three percent of the statewide congressional delegation. How about Illinois? All right, Illinois is really egregious Illinois. Fifty four percent of people in Illinois vote Democrat. It's not that huge margin. Forty four percent, forty three, forty three percent vote Republican. There are seventeen congressional seats from Illinois, fourteen of them are Democrat, only three are Republicans.
So here are the numbers. Democrats in Illinois get fifty four percent of the vote and they get eighty two percent of the congressional delegation.
And so the governor, I'm sure, was like, come on down, Texas, we'll keep you safe.
Here.
We're experts in this, we know exactly what we're doing with this.
And by the way, some of the smaller Democrat states are even more egregious. So, for example, Connecticut, Trump won forty two percent of Connecticut. You know how many Republican House members there are in Connecticut.
I'm going to guess zero to one zero there there you go.
Democrats have one hundred percent. New Mexico. Trump won forty six percent in New Mexico. You know how many Republicans are elected in New Mexico to Congress?
Is it zero? Again?
Zero? Wow? Three Democrats? Zero Republicans.
But by the way, is that not the actual definition of Jerry mannering when you have forty seven percent or forty three percent going for a party and they get zero representation in Congress?
Yep?
Maryland, Maryland, Trump won thirty four percent of the vote in the state. And you know how many Republicans they have in their delegation.
One one is the only one.
There we go.
And by the way, you know what their Democrat governor.
Is saying, what Texas is terrible.
If Texas does this, we'll get rid of the only Republican we elect, will take it to zero. We want it to be one hundred percent. New Jersey, New Jersey, Trump won six percent of New Jersey, their twelve congressional seats Republicans have three of them.
Incredible Oregon.
Trump won forty one percent of the vote in Oregon. Republicans have one out of the six seats. And here's the one I love. Massachusetts. Yeah, the People's Republican Massachusetts. Trump won thirty six percent of Massachusetts in twenty twenty four. They're nine congressional seats out of Massachusetts. How many Republicans do you think they elect. I'm gonna go with zero
again zero goose egg. Understand that Massachusetts so agregious. They say, the thirty six percent of you Republicans in the state, you get nothing. Yeah, that is their answer, nothing whatsoever. And to give you a sense of just how ridiculous the Democrat politicians are, the Governor Mara Healey, a Democrat, threatened to redistrict in Massachusetts in retaliation for Texas. So
right now Massachusetts elects nine Democrats and zero Republicans. After she redistricts, I guess they'll still elect nine Democrats and zero Republicans. They've literally maxed out their jerrymandering, and yet that they're still engaged in theater.
So let me ask you this question.
You hear these numbers, this is where I think Democrats screwed up nationwide when they were coming to the aid of the Democrats from Washington, I mean from Texas. They're like, you know, we're going to stand by you and will Jerry Jerry manner even more if they take away seats from you in Texas. YadA, YadA, YadA. Now people see this, we're talking about it. Everyone else to put a gold talking about it. There's a lot of Republicans are.
Gonna be angry.
How do you fight back if you're in a state where I don't know, thirty forty percent right of the more than forty percent some of these states are voting Republican and they're getting zero representation in Congress. What do you do now? Is there a legal way to say this is jerrymandery?
Well, look, they are being shown to be complete hypocrites, and I want you, I want you now to listen to this clip from NBC where the governor of Illinois, Governor Pritzker, is called out on his uto hypocrisy. Give a listen.
Every major group that grades the fairness of congressional maps gives your state an f Common Cause and nonpartisan government watchdog even says your map and I'm going to quote, represents a nearly perfect model for everything that can go wrong with redistricting. And I guess the question is, you talk about preserving democracy, how do you preserve democracy if you're using the same tactics that you've criticized Texas Republicans for.
But, as I say, what they're talking about is a distraction. The reality is that the violation of people's voting rights is what Texas is attempting to do. That's what's wrong with their efforts right now. And the fact that the President of the United States knows it and nevertheless is asking them to do it, that is what's wrong with what we're seeing right now.
Democracy is at stake.
I love it.
They always go back to democracy is at stake center, Like.
Don't sit the question, man, how do you know that a Democrat is lying?
They start talking about democracy at.
Stake, his lips are moving. Yeah, it's true, it's true. It is utterly brazen. So let's go back to the numbers, because the numbers matter. So Illinois, fifty four percent of people in Illinois vote Democrat, and yet their map right now elects eighty two percent of the congressional delegation is Democrat.
Now Texas Texas.
Right now today Texas, fifty six percent of the state in twenty twenty four voted Republican. Our map, we have thirty eight seats in it, twenty four Republicans, fourteen Democrats. That means that right now in Texas, fifty four percent of the Republicans elect sixty three percent of the congressional delegation. So it's slightly more than the statewide percentage, but not nearly as egregious as the other states. Now, what Texas is doing is redrawing the districts so that five new
Republicans are likely to be elected. So instead of breaking down twenty four to fourteen, it is likely to break.
Down twenty nine to nine.
That means that we would go from sixty three percent of the congressional delegation being Republican, we would go from that to seventy six percent. Now, seventy six percent is still lower than California, which is eighty three percent.
It is lower.
Than Illinois, which is eighty two percent, and it's obviously lower than Massachusetts, which is one hundred percent. And the irony, the loudest voices that are denouncing what Texas is doing. Are the governors of California, Illinois, and Massachusetts, three Democrat hipocrats that are all saying, you guys are drawing your maps not nearly as bad as we've drawn it, but how dare you get even close?
And by the way, don't forget the New York governor Hochel got in on this as well. She was called out for it on Fox News Channel. Listen to this summrised it.
They said it was only three years ago that New York's Democratic legislature drew up a map so brazenly contemptuous of basic rules the governor district's contiguousness, that the state's Democrat dominated Court of Appeals threw it out. The New York Times at the time called those maps comically contorted. That's their quote. So your state's highest court at the time, all the judges appointed by democratic governors, they threw the
maps out. So fair to say Democrats have done what they're now accusing Republicans of doing.
No, we followed the rules. We do it every ten years.
We based on that you didn't follow the rules. Well, we did follow the rules, So the court was wrong, but we followed the rules.
We follow the rooves you didn't the court said you did. No, no, we follow There was no no no, The court said you didn't follow the rules. That's how bad they were in New York on that, Senator.
And understand, in New York, Democrats get fifty fifty six percent of the vote and they get seventy three percent of the congressional district. And but by the way, the way they do that in New York is is they break up Long Island, they break up Republican parts and try to try to elect Democrats that they are. The way they do it in California is they break up southern California, they break up Orange County, and they.
Try to break up Republican votes.
The way they do it in Chicago is they break up the more conservative votes that are outside of Chicago. All of that, that's the strategy the Democrats do. And and listen, the reason Texas is acting to do this is because it matters number one nationally, if we have a Republican majority in the House.
We have a very slim majority right now.
Electing five new Republicans will make a difference, will significantly increase the chances of keeping a Republican majority in the twenty twenty sixth election. But it also reflects the values of the voters of Texas.
Texas is a red state.
Texans want low taxes, we want low regulation, we want a secure border. We support law enforcement, we support keeping our families safe. We support the Constitution. We want free speech and religious liberty in the Second Amendment, Texans believe in fundamental liberty, fundamental values. And today's left wing, lunatic Democrat Party is directly contrary to the values of the people of Texas. And so what the legislature is doing is drawing a map that will elect a congressional delegation
that reflects the values of the voters. That is not only not contrary to democracy, that is the essence of democracy, which is allowing the voters to actually elect representatives who share their values. And what the Democrats are mad about is that this map will allow the voters of Texas to elect representatives who share their values. In their view, any time you hear a Democrat use the words assault on democracy, what they really mean is electing Republicans. It's
just about power. It's why these same hypocrites did everything they could to remove Donald Trump from the ballot. Ye because nothing says defending democracy like taking your opponent off the ballot and stopping the pesky voters from voting for him. They don't believe in democracy. They believe in power, raw power.
So they're perfectly comfortable with Massachusetts having one hundred percent of its DEWN delegation being Democrats, but they're furious if a republican state actually tries to have its delegation reflect the views of its voters.
That is the beauty of democracy.
And if you think I'm being too harsh, if you think I'm being to too harsh and too judgmental of the Democrats, I want you to listen to my erstwhile opponent, Beto O'Rourke. Now, Beto, you recall ran against me in twenty eighteen for the Senate. He became a cause celeb all of the Democrats, all of the media, their hearts went pitter pat, and he was a phenom.
And he came within a few points of beating to be lost.
And then he ran for president as a Democrat and he lost, And they ran for governor against Greg ABBOTTNY lost. So at this point he's zero for three and he's kind of pissed off about it, and so when he's pissed off about it, he's really honest and candid.
Give a listen to what Beto had to say.
They're not going to let him stop us.
Are you with me on that handle.
It also means, as Mark was saying earlier, we don't await the punch thrown by these would be fascist to land. We punch first, and we punch harder. We want California and New Jersey and Illinois and Maryland and every other state where the Democrats hold the governor's mansion, the Assembly, and the state Senate to redraw their congressional districts now, not wait for Texas to move first to maximize Democratic Party advantage. Listen, you may say to yourself, well, those
aren't the rules. There are no refs in this game for the rules. We are gonna win whatever it takes. We're gonna take this to them in every way that we can.
Now, you got a lot better there, family values guy, right, That's why I say he's such a just dynamic candidate.
But look, he is honest. This is today's Democrat party. It is about power. Nothing else matters. Democracy doesn't matter, or the will of the voters, doesn't matter. It is they're imposing their radical left wing values. And the reason they have to be so obsessed with power is their ideas are unpopular. If you put a referendum in front of the American people, you want open borders, overwhelming majority of Americans say no, No, we don't. You put a
referendument in front of the American people. Hey do you want to release murderers and rapists and child molesters? American people say no. Hey do you want to confiscate everyone's guns? The American people say no. Hey do you want boys
competing in girls' sports? The American people say no. And so, if you're a party whose entire platform is wildly unpopular, is on the twenty side of eighty twenty issue after eighty twenty issue, after eighty twenty issue, the only way you can implement your crazy ideology is through brute force and power. And Beto, I'll commend him for being honest. He's just interested, ironically, in being a fascist, in being a ttalitarian the language he uses. He doesn't want the
voters to have a say. He wants to force his radical policies on them. That's what the Democrats are revealing to the whole country.
Just put in perspective, Democratic favorability is the lowest in history of CNN polling.
What is your view of the Democratic Party?
Only twenty eight percent of Americans say that they have a favorable opinion the Democratic part now fifty four percent unfavorable of the Democratic Party. Only sixteen percent of Americans have no opinion. That is the lowest in history of CNN polling that came out today.
To put it in perspective, the Democrats are polling six points above gonorrhea and nine points above ebola. So that's where their radical policies have taken them. And by the way, for the fact checkers, I made those numbers up. I don't actually know where either of those diseases poll.
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